By Madelaine Miraflor The National Food Authority (NFA) already concluded the series of rice importation it was supposed to conduct within the year as Thailand and Vietnam — the only countries with existing rice trade agreement with the Philippines — both recently qualified to sell the country with additional 203,000 metric tons (MT) of the staple food. Yesterday, the NFA conducted the government-to-government importation for the procurement of 203,000 MT of rice. The agency offered to buy such volume for US$470 per MT, a reference price that both Thailand and Vietnam eventually met. This marks the end of the series of importation that the NFA conducted for the year, which totaled to 1.25 million MT of rice, roughly half of which are still set to arrive. During the bidding, Thailand offered to supply the country with 80,000 MT of rice for US$469.80 per MT. Of this, the first 10,000 MT of rice should be delivered in the Philippines by December 15, while the rest should be here by December 30. For its part, the government of Vietnam first offered to supply the country with 170,000 MT of rice for US$470 per MT. The first tranche, around 50,000 MT, should arrive in the country not later than December 15, while the rest should be here by December 30. Since Thailand’s bid price is lower, representatives of Vietnam were given a chance and time to lower their bid price and adjust their volume. Eventually, Vietnam offered to supply the Philippines with 40,000 MT of rice due for arrival on December 15 and another 83,000 MT of rice, which should enter the country not later than December 30. The bid price is US$469.80 per MT. In the end, all the 203,000 MT volume was taken up. NFA’s Assistant Administrator Maria Mercedes Yacapin said she is hoping that all the supply will arrive on time. Otherwise, penalty will be imposed. This is the fourth time the NFA bid out the subject volume. It was on November 13 when NFA failed for the third time to secure supply for this 203,000 MT of rice after Vietnam and Thailand won’t sell their rice at cheaper price. Vietnam and Thailand particularly made bid offers higher than NFA's reference price of US$447.88 per MT. The subject volume for bidding was the balance from the 250,000 MT offered for bidding last October 18 under an open tender scheme. With majority of the bid offers exceeding the NFA’s approved reference price of US$428.18 per MT, only 47,000 MT was awarded to three suppliers who offered prices lower than the approved budget. On November 6, NFA first attempted to secure offers for the supply of the remaining 203,000 MT of rice through a G2G tender but also failed since Thailand and Vietnam refused to participate in the bidding. Last week, NFA also secured five foreign suppliers for the 500,000 MT of rice it has been authorized to import. This was done through a government-to-private importation.